


Heads Above

by airlia



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: (and also my first work in English//please don't kill me), Don't know how the title came aroung, F/M, Honestly.., How do I tag?!, I know this isn't fluff, It was a song I was listening to., Jedi!AU, On another note..., This Is STUPID, What do you mean this is ooc?, What is this constant bickering?, but I had so much fun exploring them both in this AU, quite lame for a Valantine's exchange, what the hell is this?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-14
Updated: 2016-02-14
Packaged: 2018-05-20 06:42:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5995341
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/airlia/pseuds/airlia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(sort of) Reylo Jedi!AU !<br/>For the "Reylo Valentine's Day Gift Exchange"!<br/>Ben and Rey have been assignet as a team for quite some time now, but - somehow - they still have their difficulties with each other.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Heads Above

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bittersnake](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bittersnake/gifts).



Rey looked at the chains around her wrists with narrowed eyes.  
There was a possibility of getting rid of these. Maybe with the Force. She pursed her lips, after thinking about all her possibilities. It would be better if she didn’t push her luck. A few months ago, she had been in a similar situation, and it was just within a hair's breadth that she managed to get away safely.  
Rey let her eyes wander through the prison cell she was brought into, alongside with her partner. It was narrow, almost too narrow for the two of them, quite dirty, dark and the walls were coated with a thin layer of humidity. In the five hours they were already inhabiting this small room, neither of them spoke a word.

Rey had been too lost in her thoughts, trying to figure out how to escape, without causing too much ruckus, while Ben Solo sat there in a rigid manner, his dark eyes almost piercing through the door with the intensity of his stare.  
The girl opened her mouth to say something, but was immediately stopped by her inmate.  
“Don’t even think about it.” His dark voice was thrown back from the walls, echoing in the small chamber.  
“Excuse me?” She tilted her head enough to be able to look at him from the side.  
“Talking. Don’t even think about talking.” Ben stated dryly, his eyes still lingering on the cell’s door.  
“It was not my fault.”  
He sighed.  
“Please, remind me again whose fault it is that we’re stuck here.”  
Rey turned her head back, her surprised expression changing into a grimace while doing so. Ben sighed again, now leaning back onto the humid wall behind his back, his head slightly tilted. She could feel his eyes on her.  
“It was not my fault.” Rey repeated herself, retorting his stare.

For a man as long as Ben, the cell was almost too small in its width for him to seat comfortably. Only now, did it come to Rey’s attention that the people on Nidani Va’an were rather small. Not much smaller than her, anyways. But small enough for bigger people to find themselves in awkward positions, as everything was either too narrow in width or in height.

“You insulted the chancellor’s wife.” The darkhaired Jedi Knight spoke after a few minutes. However, he did not break eye contact during this short period of time, in which neither of them dared to say anything. This resulted in them awkwardly staring at each other. Again.  
It was some sort of ritual between them. Speak, stare, ignore, and repeat. Sometimes, they also spoke while staring at each other, or they went straight into arguing, without even ignoring the other for a while.  
“It was not my intention to insult her.” Rey responded a few seconds of examining his face. He seemed rather calm; for now. He shifted again, changing his position slightly out of the need for comfort, finally breaking eye contact.  
“I told you exactly how to greet them properly.”  
“I did.”  
“Obviously.”  
“Getting sarcastic now, are we?”  
“Sarcastic?”  
“Bow three times, while keeping your right hand over your heart. That’s what you tod me.”  
“And no talking.”  
“It was just a compliment!”  
“Oh? So, comparing the chancellor’s wife with a steelpecker is a compliment?”  
“They have a wonderful dark plumage.”

Ben shot her a warning glance, which Rey averted by looking back at her chained wrists. She could tell his patience was growing thin. However, he was being too patient. Normally, Ben would have found a way of escaping, if she wasn’t able to think of anything. How would she know that?

They have been working together for almost a year now.  
Each and every single one of their missions brought along its own problems, but it was not that unusual that a few would also arise because of one or two unforeseen obstacles, due to the nature of their mission. However, Rey had to admit that certain problems were self-inflicted, avoidable ones.  
But Rey was young, merely nineteen years old, almost inexperienced, and maybe – and this way a huge maybe – she had been promoted too soon to the rank of a Jedi Knight.  
It was not infrequent to have Jedi this young; at least not for the current generation and as far as Rey could tell it. It wasn’t like there were many of them, anyway.  
Still, it had become a trend of the new Jedi Council to build teams between the Jedi. Of course, there were the normal Master and Padawan team-ups. But more inexperienced Knights got teamed up with other, older, Jedi Knights or Jedi Masters. It was not to monitor them, but more for the sake of them grasping the ways of handling things.  
This is how Rey met Ben Solo.  
Of course, she had seen him a few times over the years, whenever he was at the Academy with Master Luke. But it was not until recently that she got to know her Masters former Padawan and nephew. By teaming these two up, the Council hoped to be able to tame Rey, while at the same time making Ben more prone for teamwork.  
To be quite frank: this was not working out all too well.  
Not because of their abilities; they worked well together, overcoming most of the problems that would arise during a mission. However, they clashed, leading them to constantly bicker and discuss about minor things. It was not a matter of age. Ben was ten years older than Rey, but he sure didn’t always seem like it in the middle of one of their arguments.  
They clashed because of their difference in character.

Ben had tried to alter the Council’s decision repeatedly, but to no avail.  
All of his approaches, regarding his matter, had been ignored. If he was to have a partner, he wanted someone coolheaded, who was able to think things through and had the know-how. A well suited partner. Someone, who would not get in his way like Rey did most of the time, who listened carefully to what he had to say, and who would not dismiss his words ‘because there were better approaches’.

This time they had been assigned an easy task: they should meet the chancellor of Nidani Va’an during some national festivities and represent the Jedi Order. Ben knew how to behave himself in such situations, as he had accompanied he mother, General Leia Organa, numerous times on political events when he was still a kid. Later on, he made sure to learn things like formal greetings and titles by heart, to be able to build a bridge of trust between him and the collocutor, or the employer – if you could call someone, who would turn to the Jedi Council for help, that.  
Ben had already represented the Council a few times, so this wouldn’t be all too hard, considering Nidani Va’an was a rather peaceful place. It was just political nonsense. Nothing could go wrong, right?  
Wrong.

“Look,” Rey spoke after clearing her throat. “It was not my intention to insult anyone, okay? It’s not my fault they took it the wrong way. I really, really tried to apologize and make up for it afterwards.”  
As far as Ben could tell, the young Jedi he had been partnered up with had the tact of a four year old youngling, as well as an almost non-existent sense for politics.  
This is what brought them into this situation.

“You mean, after you have insulted her for a second time, right?” Ben commented, tilting his head slightly while looking at Rey, who avoided looking up. Now, it was her who was focusing on the door, awaiting the hourly steps of the guard that came by to see if they were behaving themselves.  
“As I already said,” Rey bit her bottom lip after speaking. “It was not on purpose.”  
“Good job.” Her partner replied.  
“Oh, quit being so arrogant.”  
“Arrogant?”  
“Yes.”  
“I am not being arrogant.”  
“You are! You always behave as if you’ve never messed up before!”  
“You’re right. I didn’t.”  
“That’s bantha fodder, Ben, and you know it!”  
"If you say so."  
“What about _Argavat_ , Ben?”  
“What _about_ Argavat?”  
“The Quicksand? The Stormtroopers?”  
“What about _Rishi_ , Rey?”  
“What _about_ Rishi?”  
“The smugglers. The fire.“  
“That was clearly not my fault.”  
“Of course not.”

Now, it was Rey who sighed.  
She was tired of their constant bickering. Apart from the time they took to travel back and forth to somewhere, in which they would discuss possible approaches to a mission or sleep, they always argued.  
They argued in front of Master Luke, the Jedi Council, and every other person or group that crossed their way. Somehow, Rey and Ben could never manage to discuss their differences in opinion in a quiet, peaceful manner. It never got out of hand, but both were rather passionate about defending their own point of view. Maybe it was time to try another method to cool things down?

“Admittedly, it was quite a nice move to force push the smugglers into the waterfall.” Rey muttered after a while.  
“I know.”  
“Sure you do.”  
Maybe, it wasn’t the right tactic after all. Softening things up by patting him verbally on the back? Rey should have known better.  
“The Vornskr on Mykr. That wasn’t too bad.” Ben spoke, breaking the silence that took a hold of them in the small, uncomfortable cell for about ten minutes.  
“Figured they are pretty weak on their head. Piece of cake.” Rey shot him a wide grin, which threw him off guard. Facing away quickly, Ben’s eyes returned to the door of the cell after all their exchange of words. As soon, as he could hear the guard’s steps in the distance, he managed to get up from his impossible sitting position. Now standing, he reached out in a hesitant manner, nudging Rey lightly on her head. She looked up at him, seemed slightly confused.  
“They’re releasing us.”  
“What?” Rey furrowed her eyebrows. How could he be so sure?  
“Nidanians believe in the power of locking people away, instead of resorting to violence. They want you to think about your wrong-doings and realize that what you did was wrong, rather than impaling you or cutting some of your limbs off.”  
“Wait. What?”  
Ben had to contain the urge of laughing out loud at the face she made, by pressing his lips on each other and facing the door as the steps were getting closer.  
“I’ve been here before with Master Luke. Actually, this is my third time visiting.”

Rey didn’t talk to him for the rest of their day, always looking at him like he was some sort of evil.  
However, upon returning and reporting to the Council, Rey heard from Luke that the first time Ben visited Nidani Va’an, he had been held solo in the same small cell, while Luke explored the island they had been on for a bit.  
As too why Ben stayed with her in the small room, she probably would never know. At least, he did not seem to want to give her a proper answer other than to ‘ _see how she would react_ ’.

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted fluff. I did.  
> But what I got was Reylo and lots of wine.
> 
> Hope you liked it!  
> I hope I managed to find most of the errors.  
> Anyways, thank you so much for reading!  
> Hope you had as much fun as I did imagining these two idiot in that tiny cell.  
> Also... As much as I love angst, thought something light would be the right thing for Valentine's.  
> //I tried and failed and then came up with this...//
> 
> Maybe I'll try out a few more Jedi!AU Reylo stuff, to get into writing.
> 
> Happy Valentine's Day, everyone! ~


End file.
